Housing dilemma

Also, like many who might know better, he is putting the cart before the horse.

The challenge we must meet is not only the prospect of unending new house-building but the unending queue of people wanting to live in them.

Bognor’s population habitually doubles within each new 40 years.

Housing needs are never met because demand never ceases.

Is that desirable or even sensible?

Arun does not so much need a housing policy as a population policy, for that is where the driving force comes from.

Otherwise Bognor will slowly degenerate into a slum.

Clearly there is a groundswell of opinion – and the Conservative ADC group are to be congratulated for acting on it – against all this new house building, but the problem is not just the houses.

Taking on the population issue would not be an easy path to take or a popular one in some quarters, but I would like to think it is on the horizon within councillors’ minds.

Yes, population, and therefore housing, targets aimed at making the best of our area would invite legal challenges, but get thinking about meeting them!

Parts of the Channel Islands, for example, have taken this route and capped the number of persons they permit to live in an area.

It’s a rocky route and there aren’t many precedents for it, but what do we really want our area to be?

William Partridge

Stoney Stile Close, Aldwick